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Charlie shrugged and looked around at the mess. “I’ll deal with this later. You want me to give you a ride to Heather’s?”
“I can call Michael to pick me up.”
“You sure?” She gestured for me to leave before her, then stopped to lock up once we were outside. “I don’t mind driving you.”
“Yeah,” I replied, trying to sound nonchalant and not as desperate to disappear as I felt.
We stood outside in the wind while I called Michael.
“Hey, sugar,” Michael answered, out of breath. “How’s your first day?”
“I’m done for the day,” I replied, sounding almost cheerful. “Can you come pick me up?”
“Done for the day?”
“Yep!”
There were a few seconds of silence when I knew he was debating whether or not to ask why I was done four hours before my shift was supposed to end, but God bless him, he decided against it. I wasn’t sure how to answer while Charlie stood next to me, zipping up her coat.
“Be there in five,” he said finally. “I’m on the bike.”
“He’s coming to get me,” I told Charlie with a smile, putting my phone away. “You don’t have to wait.”
“I’m not leaving you out here alone,” she replied with a snort. “I can wait ten minutes.”
“You really don’t have to.” I was so close to tears that the lump in my throat was hard to ignore.
“Not happening,” she said flatly, leaning over to bump my shoulder.
We stood there in the silence, shivering inside our jackets until Michael pulled into the lot on his motorcycle. I wasn’t sure how or why he’d gone back home to get it after he’d dropped Rhett off, but I wasn’t about to ask. I just wanted to get the hell out of there as quickly as humanly possible.
“Same time tomorrow?” Charlie asked with a smile and wave. She strode to her car and was inside it before Michael had turned off his motorcycle.
“What happened?” Michael asked as I hurried toward him.
“Just get me out of here,” I ordered desperately, trying clumsily to climb on the back.
“Wait, wait, wait.” He stopped me by grabbing my hips and pushed me backward a little so he could climb off. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I snapped back. I was losing the fight against my tears and brushed angrily at my face. “Can we just go, please?”
“You’re freezing,” he muttered as he took off his helmet. “Why the hell didn’t you wait inside?”
“She probably wanted to get me as far away from there as possible,” I mumbled under my breath.
“What?”
“I just want to go home.”
“Alright,” he replied with a sigh, still watching me closely. “Here, put this on.”
A few minutes later, he’d put his helmet on my head and helped me onto the bike, ordering me to hold tightly to his waist before pulling out of the parking lot. My stomach swooped with fear as we turned onto the road and I forced my body to move with his even though everything inside me urged me to lean in the opposite direction. Then, we were on the road, and for a few moments, it felt like we were flying.
As I grew more comfortable on the back of the motorcycle, reality started to seep in. No matter how hard I’d tried, I’d failed miserably at something that should’ve been relatively easy. Take an order, make a drink, accept payment and deliver the drink. Simple. I’d served plenty of bar food and drinks just fine, so why on earth had the day making coffee been so hard? Charlie had been there to help me and I’d still been a complete disaster. I didn’t understand it, and I felt like a complete moron.
“How did you leave the truck here?” I asked when we parked in front of Heather and Tommy’s house.
“Figured you might need it before I was done today,” Michael replied with a shrug, helping me dismount. “So, I parked the truck here and rode to the house in the tow truck with my dad.”
